Delays to roadworks at a ‘dangerous’ A3 junction are putting people’s lives at risk, according to a residents’ association.

Members of the group, who all live in Warren Park, near Thursley, have been battling with the Highways Agency for months in an attempt to improve the lighting on the approach to their retirement village.

The sudden turn off to the park is unknown to most who do not live there, and the residents have been left fearing for their lives as they pull in or out from their homes.

John Luff, a member of the residents’ association said: “We had hoped when they worked on the Hindhead tunnel and straightened out the road that they would give us an acceleration and deceleration road, as they had further up, but they said there was no money.

“It’s very dangerous when you are coming down at night, because everything’s doing about 80 mph, and it is not lit, so you can not see exactly where the turning is. You have to slow down, and you get hooted and flashed at.

“We were over the moon when they put in these cat’s eyes because you could see from 300 yards away. Then three weeks later they dug them back up.”

The residents’ association was told that the cat’s eyes would be replaced at the end of January, but that came and went with no roadworks.

The date of February 7 was given, but nothing happened. A second date of March 7 was earmarked, and again, no work was carried out.

In February, Mr Luff wrote to request the details of the expense of the work going on along the carriageway under the Freedom of Information Act.

The Highways Agency could not tell him precisely the figure for the installation, removal and missed dates for re-installation of the cat’s eyes, but he was told that the works in total cost £420,000.

The Highways Agency has blamed the delays to works on bad weather, but Mr Luff is positive that the weather was fine on both the dates in February and March that were given to him.

Cecilia Bundy, who is also a member of the residents’ association, said: “We made a note of it, the weather was fine, and since then, they have had the tunnel closed, so couldn’t the work have been done then?

“Isn’t that a great opportunity to do the work?

“Touch wood, there hasn’t been an accident yet.

“But we kept on saying, there could be an incident and people could die here. It has happened countless times, that we think someone will go into our cars.

“A big accident could have happened, because you have to slam your brakes on.

“You can’t be a nervous driver here. I have been quite lucky, but a lot of people have had really aggressive drivers behind them, and lorries.”

Mr Luff said: “We’ve been told it is not considered a dangerous road, and nothing would change until there was an accident.

“They treat us with absolute contempt.

“I feel sorry for the people who work there [Highways Agency] because they get so much grief. You never get to the person who has changed the date.”

Mr Luff and Mrs Bundy agreed that despite the dangerous junction, the community spirit in the park remains high, and that no one has moved or planned to move based on the problems.

A spokesman for the Highways Agency said: “The work will be completed, weather permitting, overnight on Thursday March 19. The reason that it was not undertaken on previous dates was in part due to adverse weather, and also because there had been other emergency work on the network which meant that installation of the cat’s eyes at Thursley was not possible.

“We will be discussing any extra costs caused by any delay to this work with our contractors.”

The spokesman also said that changes to road networks are made after continual review, including accident information, traffic information and lighting issues.

E.M. Mouchel, the company carrying out the roadworks, did not respond to a request for a comment.